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Larry Hama
Larry Hama (born 7 June 1949) is a writer, artist, actor and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s. He is best known as a writer and editor for Marvel Comics, where he wrote the licensed comic book series G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero, based on the Hasbro action figures. He has also written for the series Wolverine, Nth Man: the Ultimate Ninja, and Elektra, and he created the character Bucky O'Hare, which was developed into a comic book, a toyline, two videogames, and a television cartoon. During the 1970s, he was seen in minor roles on the TV shows M*A*S*H and Saturday Night Live, and he appeared on Broadway in two different roles in the original 1976 production of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures. Early life and career Larry Hama is a third-generation American, born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and raised in Queens. He "played Kodokan Judo as a kid" and later studied Kyūdō (Japanese archery) and Iaido (Japanese swordsmanship).JoeGuide.com: 1998 Larry Hama interview Planning to become a painter, Hama attended Manhattan's High School of Art and Design, where one instructor was former EC Comics artist Bernard Krigstein. Hama sold his first comics work to the fantasy film magazine Castle of Frankenstein when he was 16 years old. After high school, Hama took a job drawing shoes for catalogs, and then served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers from 1969 to 1971, during the Vietnam War,Jim Shooter, "Bullpen Bulletins," (July 1981). an experience that would aid in his editing of the 1986-1993 Marvel Comics series The 'Nam. Upon his discharge, Hama became active in the Asian community in New York City. Hama began penciling for comics a year-and-a-half later, making an auspicious debut succeeding character co-creator Gil Kane on the feature "Iron Fist" in Marvel Premiere, taking over with the martial arts superhero's second appearance and his next three stories (#16-19, July-November 1974). He went on to freelance for start-up publisher Atlas/Seaboard (writing and penciling the first two issues of the sword & sorcery series Wulf the Barbarian, writing the premiere of the sci-fi/horror Planet of Vampires); some penciling work on the seminal independent comic book Big Apple Comix #1 (Sept. 1975); and two issues of the jungle-hero book Ka-Zar before beginning a long run at DC Comics. There, Hama became an editor of the DC titles Wonder Woman, Mister Miracle, Super Friends, The Warlord, and the TV-series licensed property Welcome Back, Kotter from 1977-1978, then joined Marvel as an editor in 1980. G.I. Joe Larry Hama is best known as writer of the Marvel Comics licensed series G.I. Joe, based on the Hasbro line of military action figures. Hama said in a 2006 interview that he was given the job by then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter after every other writer at Marvel had turned it down.ToyFare #105 (Wizard Entertainment, May 2006). Hama at the time had recently pitched a Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. spin-off series, Fury Force, about a daring special mission force. Hama used this concept as the back-story for G.I. Joe. The series made frequent use of authentic military terms and strategies, Eastern philosophy, martial arts and historical references, largely drawn from Hama's own military background. The comic ran 155 issues (Feb. 1982-Oct. 1994), of which Hama wrote 147, co-wrote another two, and penciled one. Hama also wrote the majority of the G.I. Joe action figures' filecards—short biographical sketches designed to be clipped from the G.I. Joe and COBRA cardboard packaging.Yo Joe Filecard Gallery In 2006 these filecards were reprinted in the retro packaging of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero 25th Anniversary line. Many of the characters were named after Hama's family, friends, and comrades who died during the Vietnam War, or otherwise had hidden historical references. The Arctic trooper Frostbite was given the name Farley Seward in reference to United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, known for Seward's Folly, the then-infamous purchase of Alaska from Imperial Russia in 1867. Quick Kick, G.I. Joe's Japanese-American martial arts expert, was named "MacArthur S. Ito" after U.S. World War II Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Japanese Lt. Gen. Takeo Ito, who was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death in 1946. Other characters were given tongue-in-cheek names: Hovercraft pilot Cutter is Skip A. Stone, and mountaineer Alpine is Albert Pine. Hama earned an unexpected female following for G.I. Joe by writing strong female characters (Cover Girl, Lady Jaye, Scarlett) who fought equally alongside their male counterparts.[http://joeguide.com/interviews/larryhama_ci.shtml Comics Interview #37, 1986: Larry Hama interview, part one; reprinted at JoeGuide.com] The title was also praised for unusually positive representations of minorities in a children's series for the time. Hasbro sculptors sometimes used real people's likenesses when designing its action figures. In 1987, Hasbro released the Tunnel Rat action figure. The character is an Explosive Ordnance Disposal specialist, whose likeness was based on Hama.GI Joe: Tunnel Rat vs Over Kill review In December 2007 Hasbro revealed 25th Anniversary comicbook figure 2-packs that featured original stories by Hama. These new Hasbro-published issues were designed to take place "in-between the panels" of the classic Marvel series. In addition, an almost year-long speculation on the fate of the G.I. Joe comicbooks was put to an end during the 2008 San Diego Comic Con. During the panel with IDW Publishing, Hama was announced as the writer on the G.I. Joe comics reboot.SDCC '08 - IDW's G.I. Joe/Transformers Panel . Other works From 1986-1993, Hama edited the acclaimed comic book The 'Nam, a gritty Marvel series about the Vietnam War. Additionally, he wrote the 16-issue Marvel series Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja (August 1989-September 1990), concerning the adventures of John Doe, an American ninja and Special Forces commando in an alternate reality in which World War III is sparked after the world's nuclear weapons stockpiles are all destroyed. Hama also edited a relaunch of Marvel's black-and-white comics magazine Savage Tales, overseeing its change from sword-and-sorcery to men's adventure. Other comics Hama has written include Wolverine, Before the Fantastic Four: Ben Grimm and Logan, and the X-Men brand extension Generation X for Marvel; and Batman stories for DC Comics. He wrote filecards for Hasbro's line of sci-fi/police action figures, C.O.P.S. 'n' Crooks and contributed to the relaunch of the G.I. Joe toyline and comicbook in 2000. While working at Neal Adams' Continuity Associates, Hama developed a series he first created in 1978, Bucky O'Hare, the story of a green anthropomorphic rabbit and his mutant mammal sidekicks in an intergalactic war against space amphibians, which went on to become a comic, cartoon, video game and toyline. In 2006, Osprey Publishing announced that Hama would write its "Osprey Graphic History" series of comic books about historical battles, including the titles The Bloodiest Day - Battle of Antietam and Surprise Attack - Battle of Shiloh (both with artist Scott Moore) and Island of Terror - Battle of Iwo Jima (with Anthony Williams). That same year, Hama returned to his signature characters with the Devil's Due Publishing miniseries G.I. Joe Declassified, which chronicled the recruitment of the squad's first members by General Hawk. In 2007, the company added the spin-off series Storm Shadow, written by Hama and penciled by Mark A. Robinson.JoeBattlelines.com (March 19, 2007): Interview with Hama ComicAddiction.com (March 22, 2007): Interview with Hama As of 2005, Hama is married and has a teenage daughter. In January 2014, Hama collaborated with award-winning filmmaker Mark Cheng on an original film project. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/planet-nerd-rage/epic-cyberpunk-action-ghost-source-zero References External links *JoeBattlelines.com: JBL Interview with Larry Hama, Part One (2006) *Audio interview with Larry Hama from the Comic Book Haters podcast (2006) *[http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=7157 Hama Talks: G.I. Joe: Declassified by Dave Richards] Category:Writers Category:Artists